Symantec’s Intelligence Team Reveals Huge Decline in Spam Levels

The MessageLabs Intelligence Team at Symantec recently stated that, the spam levels have decreased to their lowest levels since the shutdown of the notorious ISP McColo in 2008.

Besides, it has been discovered by the team that other key botnets such as, Cutwail and Gheg appear to be unaffected presently.

The main reason for this decline is a great decrease in amount of spam from the Rustock botnet; the most prominent botnet of 2010 till now. Rustock appears to have been close down since 25th December, 2010, as the output by Rustock is continuously declining and accounting for less than 0.5% of the global spam.

Additionally, contributing to the substantial decrease in spam levels is the clear reduced level of two other key botnets, Xarvester and Lethic. MessageLabs Intelligence has witnessed no outputs from Lethic since 28th December 2010 and from Xarvester since 31st December 2010.

Experts further stated that, though this proved as a perfect holiday gift for those who frequently use e-mail, netizens should not expect the same low spam level for future also.

On the other hand, bad news for security professionals is that the decline in spam levels is unlikely to last for long because if Rustock, Lethic, and Xarvester don't make an immediate come back, others will substitute them.

However, security firms have lately estimated that cybercrooks are probable to modify the technique they control botnets in 2011 and to evade detections and execute even more sophisticated malware attacks and spam campaigns. The security firms further noted that in 2011, users are probable to witness some drive by malware attacks attacking legal websites and more malware ridden e-mail campaigns using social networking websites to scam users into downloading malware onto their systems.

Hence, users are suggested not to be moderate with the security and should install antivirus software that not only identify and removes malware ridden files, but also stops access to malware ridden web pages. Moreover, users should always update software applications with the help of manufacturers' patches and must act cautiously while when reading e-mails and suspicious files.